By Ryan Broderick

The Upright Citizen’s Brigade came to the University on October 13. The show consisted of improvisation and the four players riffed on subjects buzzing around campus, everything from the debate to the Secret Service. While the UCB troupe was traveling between college campuses trying to motivate kids to vote, it seemed overly political.

More than one time in the night, the political tension became more uncomfortable than it was entertaining.

The show opened with an interview of a liberal student, which then launched into a series of skits based off of what was said. Critiquing an improv show, though, is as much a critique of the troupe as it is a critique of the audience. And as anyone familiar with the University can attest to, students aren’t the most embracing when it comes to comedy. The troupe was in a constant battle with the less than hospitable crowd.

But the blame can’t be completely taken from UCB. No matter how bad the audience, it is their job to make it work. The troupe’s actual improv ability wasn’t superb and it seemed like a lot of the flatter jokes could have been covered up by a tighter cast. They never really let themselves go and just seemed to always be laughing more at the “idea” of their jokes and not the jokes themselves.

They were funny though; that’s not in question. The times they made the audience laugh were hugely enjoyable and the payoff was more than worth it. There was a weird nervousness in the crowd, though and it definitely affected the comedians. Whether it was because of the subject matter or because in this day and age improv just isn’t a strong form of comedy anymore, it wore the players down.

By the second half of the show, the jokes felt forced and tired and it almost felt like they had given up on the audience. There was the impression that they felt “if we can’t make you laugh, we’ll have a ball anyways,” which is sad, but again, Hofstra’s not known for being an inviting place.

Another deterring factor of the night was oddly enough the sound equipment. The improv group was outfitted with ridiculously huge microphones that actually became the troupe’s first 15 minutes of material but even joking about how silly their equipment was didn’t change the fact they had to fiddle with them every 3 or 4 minutes. Its hard enough convincing an audience you’re someone else simply because you’re miming it without looking like air traffic controllers or NASCAR pit crew workers.

The show was not a waste, or bad show in the general sense. It probably would have been far better at some other school with a more receptive audience. Every political jab was taken as insult and every piece of satire was taken as fighting words. It was actually a bit embarrassing.

The lesson Hofstra Concerts should probably learn is to book acts that require nothing more than a body from Hofstra students, because while we may seem “up and coming” to outsiders, we have a long ways to go when it comes to being polite or responsive in any sort of way.